Wrestling was a lethal martial art used for survival of the fittest but evolved into a type of sport.
*Shared cultural trait
*Wrestling had five major social functions - group identification, ritual fertility, intravillage seniorty, intravillage relations, spiritual transendence, and conflict resolution.
*Group Identification: You could tell what tribe you were from by the style in which you wrestled. For instance, some would use hooking, which was the most brutal form used to maim ones opponent.
- In the Igbo Nnewi village, there were two styles of wrestling that specialized in ankle picks called Mgba,and Ebenebe. This was based on a "catch-as-catch-can" technique that featured ankle and leg grabbing and leg wrapping in a primary focus of using the legs.
Ritual Fertility - The Igbo Tribe had a yearly festival where the wrestling was the highlight and it wasn't just for recreation or entertainment, but almost a solemn rite of giving back strength and potency to the land in order to make it flourish. Groups of virgins would be part of the crowd to cheer on the wrestlers, and give them strength as well as recieving strenghth to procreate.
Intravillage Seniorty - Where the village elders were there to referee the contest and establish who competes between the villages. The village eleders were once wrestlers themselves, and the better the wrestler they were, the higher social status they recieved.
Intravillage Relations - In the village, the young men were grouped into age groups of wrestlers and those who were the best rose to the top. These young men were able to rise in importance in the village and were sent as representitves to the other villages. This was a rite of passage and help create strong bonds between the villages through wrestling. Matches were made between the most powerful wrestlers and the best girls to unite the two villages
Spiritual Transendence - Wrestlers would prime themselves before a match, doing without sex for a week beforehand to conserve their strength. Also, they would take herbs and medicines in order to focus and to be the best that they could. A wrestler would also be dipicted as a hero if they won a battle.
Conflict Resolution - In order to solve problems between villages, the villages would arrange a wrestling match and any violence could be resolved in this instead of haveing a war between tribe members. The wrestlers could represent other people, and they could do it in a protective ground where spititual forces would protect them This was an efficent way to limit blood shed.
- Wrestling was a lethal martial art used for survival of the fittest but evolved into a type of sport.
- *Shared cultural trait
*Wrestling had five major social functions - group identification, ritual fertility, intravillage seniorty, intravillage relations, spiritual transendence, and conflict resolution.*Group Identification: You could tell what tribe you were from by the style in which you wrestled. For instance, some would use hooking, which was the most brutal form used to maim ones opponent.
- In the Igbo Nnewi village, there were two styles of wrestling that specialized in ankle picks called Mgba,and Ebenebe. This was based on a "catch-as-catch-can" technique that featured ankle and leg grabbing and leg wrapping in a primary focus of using the legs.
Sites for pictures:
http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&expIds=17259,17315,23628,23670,26328,26637,26761,26849,26869,27126,27182,27284&sugexp=ldymls&xhr=t&q=igbo+wrestling&cp=7&wrapid=tljp1288148339807010&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=cJXHTIfGI4L-8AbOzfDlDw&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=1&sqi=2&ved=0CCgQsAQwAA&biw=1345&bih=530
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